


The Only Guarantee is You and Me

by ThePackWantstheD



Category: Hockey RPF
Genre: 2015-2016 NHL Season, Alex does a lot of reflecting, Domestic Fluff, Established Relationship, Fluff, M/M, Sexual Content, trade fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-25
Updated: 2017-02-11
Packaged: 2018-08-10 21:35:57
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 8
Words: 11,506
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7861969
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ThePackWantstheD/pseuds/ThePackWantstheD
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Nicky's first text was a simple and incredibly vague, I'm turning my phone off to give things time to settle down.</p><p>Immediately following it was a second, cautionary, message reading, Don't do anything stupid. I'll call you soon to talk about it.</p><p> </p><p>Or: The Stars make a trade with the Capitals instead of the Blackhawks. Alex does what he needs to to make sure he stays with Nicklas.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. I'll Follow You Into the Dark

**Author's Note:**

> Inspired by "Misery's the Moment When I Love You" by Fredou which is a fic where hockey players can be traded by their team and they can also ask for a trade.

Alex was sitting in his mothers kitchen, picking a pirozhki filled with cabbage and potatoes apart with his fingers and listening to her complain about something Mikhail had done, when his phone went off.

He licked the fingers on one of his hands clean and wiped them on his shorts, a gesture that would have had his mother screeching at him if she'd been looking instead of doing the dishes, before swiping his thumb against the screen to light it up.

His eyebrows knitted together in confused when he saw Nicky had messaged him.

It wasn't the fact that Nicky had messaged him that was weird, they used the off season to spend time in their home countries with their families but Alex couldn't imagine spending three months completely without Nicky, but the messages themselves.

 

"Sasha," his mother said. Alex sent a solid eight question marks to Nicky, hoping that maybe he hadn't had time to turn off his phone yet, before glancing up at her. "Is my food so terrible that you'd rather be on your phone than eating?"

"Of course not, mama," he said. "I was just answering Nicky."

"Oh well, if it's Nicky," she said.

Though there was a measure of sarcasm in her tone, Alex knew she didn't really mind if he was talking to Nicky while eating. She knew one of his biggest fears was growing distant from Nicky during the off season, she'd coaxed it out of him back when he and Nicky first got together, and let him get away with a lot when it came to Nicky.

"How is Kolya?" she asked, turning back to the sink to finish cleaning the dishes. Alex felt a familiar rush of fondness at the usage of the diminutive. It was a show of how much affection his mother had for Nicky. "Has he been having a good time with his family?"

"Yes," Alex said, because Nicky's strange text messages aside he had been having a good time with his family. He looked back down at his phone, pulling up a browser to go to a sports site. If Nicky felt the need to turn his phone off then he had to be expecting their teammates to bombard him with questions about something. "He and Kristoff went skiing in Norway over the weekend."

"Norway?" his mother echoed. "Why'd they go to Norway? There must be places in Sweden where they could have gone."

"There is," Alex answered. "It's just that the place in Norway is-"

His words caught off abruptly as the page he pulled up loaded.

It felt like hours passed before his mother said, voice soft and questioning, "Sasha?"

"Can I use the study?" Alex asked. His mind was a million miles away as he stood up. "I have to make a phone call."

"Yes, go ahead," she said, her worry obvious in her voice.

Alex barely heard her.

All he could think about was the bold lines of a headline talking about Nicky being  _traded_ _to Dallas._

_ _

* * *

The thing was that Alex had played hockey without Nicky. He'd played hockey in Russia without Nicky and he'd played hockey in Washington without Nicky.

Playing without Nicky didn't feel nearly as good as playing with Nicky.

Alex knew there were some people who would chalk it up to romanticism, but Alex had fallen in love with Nicky's hockey far before he fell in love with Nicky himself. He fell in love with Nicky's hockey before he'd even net Nicky.

He'd started faling in love with Nicky's hockey while watching tapes of the Capitals intended first round draft pick.

The first time they made a goal together he was _gone_.

Playing hockey without Nicky was fine when Nicky was injured, because he knew he'd be back. Playing hockey against Nicky was fine when Russia and Sweden needed them, because he knew they'd be on the same team again soon enough.

Spending the rest of his career playing hockey against Nicky instead of with Nicky, though.

Well, Alex would rather give up the Capitals and the C than live like that.

Alex was ready to give all of that up just to keep playing hockey with Nicky.

There was a lot more he was willing to give up once he factored in how much he loved Nicky.

* * *

His first phone call was to Jim Nill.

Tradition for this kind of thing, for a player asking for a trade, generally favored informing the team you were leaving first so they could make an attempt at fixing whatever problem you had, but the Capitals couldn't just take Nicky back. Even if they could Nicky wouldn't go for it. He wouldn't want to be on a team that didn't want him. Alex didn't want to be on a team that didn't want Nicky either.

Nill's confusion when he answered the phone was evident when Alex introduced himself. When he explained what he wanted, it morphed into surprise and awe.

They spent several hours going over terms, once Alex started laying down what he wanted Nill realized he was serious and got down to business. By the time they finished, Nill had a writing pad filled with notes and agreed to get an actual contract written out as soon as possible.

When they hung up, Alex set his elbows on the desk and put his head in his hands.

No matter how certain he was about this, the Capitals were his family.

His next conversation was going to hurt. 

After a few moments, he straightened his back and took a deep breath.

He dialed Brian MacLellan's number.

* * *

Only four days later, the headline of every sports publication was talking about Alex leaving DC. 

* * *

Alex woke up to the sound of his phone vibrating against his nightstand, a series of loud buzzes as it moved against the nightstand.

He was lying face down on the bed with his body spread out to take up the entire bed, he always ended up sleeping that way when Nicky wasn't with him, so he buried his face deeper into his pillow and ignored it.

He'd spent all day yesterday fielding phone calls and text messages from teammates from the Capitals as well as Team Russia.

It vibrated for a few more seconds before stopping.

He let out a small breath, not quite enough to be a sigh, and wiggled himself around to get comfortable again.

Before he could really settle down though, his phone started going off again.

Alex groaned, irritated and unhappy. When it kept going instead of dropping again, he flailed his arm out. His fingers slapped against the table a few times before they finally managed to snag his phone.

He yanked it off the charger, too tired and too irritated to give a shit if he broke it, and thumbed in his password without looking at it.

"Что?" He snapped, the word coming out in harsh Russian. "Я пытаюсь спать!"

"You're an idiot! You're a stupid, stupid idiot!"

Alex blinked a few times as he processed the familiarly accented English. "Nicky?"

"Who else would it be?" Nicky questioned. His English was rough the way it always was when he was angry and wasn't focused on making the words come out right. "Have you done something that someone else should be yelling at you for?"

"Didn't even do anything for _you_  to be yelling at me for," Alex said, the words coming out a little petulant. He hadn't spoken to Nicky in almost a week, his last message had been the ones sent when his trade was announced, and now that Nicky had called him he was yelling.

"I told you not to do anything stupid and you did something stupid anyway!"

"I didn't do anything!" Alex insisted.

"You asked for a trade!" Nicky screeched. Alex couldn't remember hearing Nicky this angry ever, much less this angry at him. "Which is exactly the kind of stupid thing I didn't want you doing! You can't risk your career just because someone got traded!'

"I didn't do it because someone was traded," Alex answered. "I did it because _you_  were traded. I love you! I don't even want to play hockey without you much less live in Washington without you." He heard Nicky suck in a breath. When a moment went by without Nicky saying anything, Alex took the opportunity to add, "You haven't called me in a while. I missed you."

There was another beat before Nicky said, "I missed you too. I'm sorry I didn't call. Everyone wanted to talk about Dallas and I didn't. Now when you weren't going to be there with me."

"I will be," he answered. "I'm going to be with you as long as you'll let me."

Nicky's voice was soft, filled with love and warm affection but also a trace of amusement, when he said, "That's going to be awfully long time, Sasha. I don't think I'll ever stop wanting you with me."

"I'm okay with that," Alex said, unable to stop the soft smile that stretched on his face despite Nicky not being there to see it. "I want to be there for a long time."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 1) Okay so I wrote this on mobile and autocorrect/autofinish is a piece of shit so you might see some errors and I apologize for that. 
> 
> 2) I'm relatively certain Nicky has a no movement clause but let's pretend he doesn't. 
> 
> 3) Nicky and Ovi absolutely got together in 2012 - in Russia - during the lockout which is hellsa risky because Russia!! But also obvious bc come on, Nicky, you followed him to Russia!!!
> 
> 4) I remember that Alex negotiated his contract without an agent, but I'm not sure if he has one now? Hence him not using an agent for his trade. 
> 
> 5) I hand waved timezones bc Alex wouldn't actually be able to get information in the middle of the afternoon in Russia and then call people in North America. 
> 
> 6) So this was initially supposed to be a bit longer and span the year, but I decided to just do this. I'm totally open to verse expansion though. This fandom needs more NickyOvi and I'm happy to provide so long as people want it.
> 
> 7) I hate how long the last section is because it makes the story so uneven but I didn't want to cut it either
> 
> 8) A million thank yous to [CrazyJ](http://archiveofourown.org/users/CrazyJ) who did the photoshopping for the articles and text messages because she's amazing and fabulous and I love her.


	2. Butterfly on Your Right Shoulder

Alex was just slipping back into the house, having spent the night out partying with some of his friends from Dynamo, when his phone went off in his pocket. The shrill beeping cut harshly through the silence that had settled over the house, his parents long since having gone to sleep, and he let out a low curse as his eyes darted in the direction of their bedroom. They'd asked him to stay with them for a while so they could spend some time with him before the NHL season started, but that didn't mean he wanted to be responsible for waking them up so late.

He grabbed his phone from his pocket just in time to mute it before it rang for the second time.

He didn't know who was messaging him so late, Zhenya had started a friendly argument about whether Dynamo or Magnitogorsk was a better team when he'd seen who Alex was spending the night with so he might have been answering Alex's last message and there were a few guys who had stayed at the club that could've been letting Alex know what he was missing out on, but he was going to kill whoever they were if they were responsible for him waking up his parents.

With more than one message sent, the only thing showing on his screen was a string of numbers that he didn't recognize. It was a North American country code, but everyone from the States that would be texting him was already saved in his phone. Considering the lecture he'd given to Lats and Willy when they blew his phone up at five in the morning last summer, he was also pretty sure everyone from the states that he was close to knew the time difference well enough not to be sending him messages at two in the morning.

He had a pattern lock on his phone so it took him a moment before he was able to pull up the messages.

 

Alex stared at the messages for a minute before laughter bubbled out of his mouth, soft and contained.

He was going to miss being Captain, but it felt like he and Nicky were going to be in good hands.

* * *

He was roused awake the next morning by the sound of his phone ringing.

For a moment he considered ignoring it, but decided against it when he realized that it had to be late morning already. He could hear his parents moving around in the living areas, his mother's soft tones answering his fathers deep rumble as they spoke, and he could feel the sunlight streaming in the window to warm the bare skin on his back.

He'd been out late drinking the night before, but that wasn't an excuse to stay in bed all day.

Reaching out, he grabbed his phone and swiped to answer the call, "Здравствуйте."

"Hallå."

Alex's lips curled up in a smile at the Swedish greeting. He hadn't been up long enough to keep the warm fondness out of his voice, not that he was particularly inclined to hide it when he was wide awake, when he said, "Nicky!"

"Sasha," Nicky answered. His voice was level, a little tired, but there was a certain fondness just in the fact that Nicky was calling him his diminutive that made him grin even wider. "Do you have any idea why Jamie Benn sent me a message at one in the morning last night?"

"Because he baby captain," Alex said, all of his amusement from the previous night coming back to him.

"You know he was only drafted a year after I was right?"

"Different," Alex dismissed, waving his hand around in the air above his head even though Nicky couldn't see it. The situation was different. Nicky was a first round draft pick that had been brought up to play with Alex almost right away. Jamie Benn had been drafted 129th and only had a major junior career after that. Which wasn't to say Jamie Benn hadn't become a fantastic player. Alex had spent a lot of time prior to Capitals vs. Stars games discussing strategy on how to stop Jamie specifically. It was just that he had gotten there on a different path than Nicky and Alex had. "Besides, he did send message because he's baby captain. Still trying to prove it. Want to take care of everyone."

"But who's going to take care of him?" Nicky asked.

There was a tone in his voice that made it clear he was remembering Alex's first few years as Captain of the Capitals. Back when he'd been trying so hard to prove that he could do it that he was running himself into the ground.

"We will," Alex said. "Teammates meant to help Captain and we're his team now."

"Yeah. We are." There was a moment of silence before Nicky let out a soft sigh. "It's going to be strange having a captain that isn't you."

They'd talked about Alex's decision to follow Nicky to Dallas, but they hadn't really talked about this yet. They hadn't really talked about what they were leaving behind or everything that was going to change for them. It was as good an invitation as any to talk about those things.

Alex just wasn't sure _he_  was ready to talk about DC.

"Not your captain anymore," Alex said instead, "but still your right wing."

"Yeah," Nicky said. He sounded amused as he added, "I just can't seem to get rid of you."

"Nope."

Nicky gave a soft hum, full of fondness, and said, "It's a good thing I don't want to then."

Alex felt his lips spread in a wide smile, sure that it was wide enough to be showing off his teeth. "Good. We're gonna spend a lot of time together in Dallas, Nicky."

Neither of them had any objections to that.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 1) Originally I was going to do this as a series of short stories, but I decided to do it as a collection and put them all in one story. I think each story or chapter will fall between 1-2K? Short, like I said. 
> 
> 2) That being said I'm not actually sure how long this story will go on or when I'm going to update it so it might be slow going for a while?
> 
> 3) So I did put a pretty significant difference between Alex's English and Nicky's English. It's not to make fun of Alex's English, just that Nicky generally seems to have a better understanding of English rules? And so that I'm taking Russian so now I understand where some of the Russian's confusion comes from. Articles keep dropped a lot because they don't EXIST in Russian. 
> 
> 4) This chapter ends similarly to how the last one ended? Hopefully it's not too repetitive if you read them back to back?
> 
> 5) Okay I'm sure everyone knows this: but the number in the text is not really Jamie Benn's number. It's literally two hockey ships with a legit country and area code. Please don't call it.
> 
> 6) Song reference in the title of the last chapter is way more obvious than this one. Kudos if you got this, though I do admit I changed the lyrics.


	3. Time Square Can't Shine as Bright as You

Alex sat in a chair in Stockholm Arlanda with his legs crossed under him and his bags on the ground in front of him. He was a little too big for the chair, legs too long and thighs too thick, but some careful balancing made it work. He wouldn't be waiting much longer so the slight discomfort didn't bother him too much.

The airport was crowded, but his eyes found Nicklas the second he was within his field of vision.

Nicky's skin was the kind of warm, golden tone that came with spending a happy summer with his family. He must have spent a lot of time in the sun during their time apart because his dirty, blonde hair was more blonde than brown. It'd grown a little longer now too. It curled at the nap of his neck and hung nearer to his shoulders than it had before. He was wearing a pair of baggy blue sweatpants, Team Sweden issue, and a black sweatshirt. He had a large duffel bag slung over his shoulder. It would be just enough to get him through the first few weeks in Dallas before the rest of his things could be shipped to them.

It wasn't the most attractive look Nicklas had ever sorted, Alex had a special kind of weakness for Nicky in nothing but boxer briefs and Alex's jersey, but after almost three months apart Alex couldn't think that Nicklas looked anything less than amazing.

"Nicky," Alex said, his mouth stretching in a wide smile.

He pushed himself to his feet as Nicky drew closer to him, itching with a need to touch Nicky and make sure he was real. It was the same impulsive urge that struck him every time he saw Nicky after spending such a long time apart.

"Sasha," Nicky said.

His lips tilted up, smiling in a way that was far more reserved than Alex's but was every bit as affectionate and loving.

Alex wanted to kiss him.

Alex also knew that while Nicky was willing to put up with a lot from him, he wouldn't be pleased if Alex decided the best way for the two of them to come out was by making out in the middle of a crowded Swedish airport.

So instead of kissing him, Alex settled for pulling Nicky into his arms for a hug.

It was a little awkward with Nicky still carrying his bag, but it felt so good to have Nicky by his side, in his arms, again that Alex couldn't help tightening his grip a bit and letting out a content sigh.

He hadn't really been _worried_ that following Nicky to Dallas was a bad decision, but there was a nagging feeling in the back of his mind that it'd been wrong to let his heart make this decision instead of his head.

Standing here with Nicky in his arms, though, assuaged all of those fears.

He didn't even like spending three months away from Nicky. Spending an entire season away from him when they could've been playing beautiful hockey together instead was just unfathomable.

* * *

Their flight took off at eight in the morning, and Alex had had a two hour flight before that just to get to Sweden, but being around Nicky had Alex too keyed up to sleep.

They spent the first few hours of their flight, a thirteen hour directly into Dallas International, sharing stories about their summer that they hadn't already told each other. Alex talked about how he'd convinced Kuzy and Malkin to visit on the same weekend. He'd watched as Kuzy fumbled through lunch with two people who had been considered Russia's greatest hockey players for almost a decade, who Kuzy had looked up too himself, and spent the entire night laughing because Kuzy was too in awe to turn down the shots that the older Russians were feeding him. Kuzy had lost all respect and spent the next morning cursing both of them out while he shoved syrniki into his mouth with a single minded intensity. Nicky told him how he'd met up with Landeskog and Lundqvist to go skiing, but had ended up snowboarding instead. He confessed that it'd been an absolute disaster and they'd all spent a lot of time with their faces in the snow. It wasn't long before they'd ended up going inside to drink hot chocolate and argue about hockey.

After a few hours the long morning caught up to Alex. He let the hum of the airplanes engines and the soft lithe of Nicky's voice lull him to sleep. With Nicky warm against him, their knees pressed together and their shoulders constantly bumping, Alex found it easier to fall asleep than he had in their time apart.

* * *

"Who were we supposed to be meeting?" Alex questioned.

His voice was thick with sleep since he'd ended up sleeping right up until Nicky woke him up for landing.

"I have no idea," Nicky said, sounding exhausted. Unlike Alex, he hadn't ended up sleeping during the flight so the time difference was getting to him. It was only two in the afternoon in Dallas, but it was around nine in Sweden and he'd had to wake up around five to make it to the airport on time. Long days were the usual during the season, but it was always hard to adjust when they first got back to the states. "I know it was in that email they sent us, though. I'll check."

Before Nicky could reach into his back pocket to grab his phone, someone shouted, "Hey! Ovechkin! Backstrom! Over here!" Turning towards the voice, Alex caught sight of Tyler Seguin just in time to see the boy look over his shoulder, shouting, "Jamie! Jordie! They're over here!"

Alex watched as Jamie Benn and a man he vaguely recognized as his brother, Jordie, emerged from the crowd.

Jordie's eyes sought Nicky and Alex out of the crowd immediately while Jamie took a moment to say something to Tyler.

Given the pinched look on Jamie's face and the amusement in Tyler's, Alex assumed it was some kind of scolding. Maybe for breaking away in a crowded airport or maybe for risking the attention of others by shouting Alex and Nicky's names.

Satisfied with whatever he had said to Tyler, Jamie looked away from him and in the direction Tyler had indicated.

Their eyes met and Jamie's lips curled in a small smile. It looked a little nervous, but welcoming nonetheless.

Glancing over at Nicky, he was unsurprised to find Nicky was watching the trio as well.

"You ready?" Alex questioned.

Nicky gave a soft hum. He shifted his bag higher up on his shoulder before turning to Alex. He gave him a small smile, the same warm and reassuring smile that he'd been giving Alex since they'd first started playing together, and said, "Yeah. Let's go meet our Captain."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 1) Helllllloooooo!! How is everyone today? I hope you all enjoyed this segment of this fic? 
> 
> 2) I was super conflicted when I first started writing this because part of me wanted to go straight to Nicky and Ovi in Dallas - BECAUSE THE STARS!! FINALLY!! - and part of me was like "nah, let's do a bit more....first." Hopefully you liked the result?
> 
> 3) One of my favorite things about the Nicky/Ovi ship is that the way their opposite personalities clash? Like, I like Benn/Seguin too but I think their opposite personalities fit toether in a way that Nicky and Ovi's don't? And yet.....Nicky and Ovi have managed to build this incredible chemistry and bond over the last decade. I tried to hit that in this fic and I hope I managed it. 
> 
> 4) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Syrniki
> 
> 5) I really like the idea of the National teams creating friendships that last through the seasons and that end up with all of these people just chilling in their down time? So I picked some fav Swedes and let them hang out in the snowy mountains. 
> 
> 6) I never know how to refer to Nicky in fics? Calling him "Nicklas" just seems weird bc I can't remember the last time I heard someone other then an annoucer call him "Nicklas Backstrom?" It's always "Nicky" or "Backie?" I have that same problem with a lot of players though.
> 
> 7) My girlfriend's reaction to the first paragraph was "Ovi with the Thick Thighs again."


	4. I Can Tell That We are Gonna be Friends

"Hello," Alex said as they approached the Benns and Tyler.

He was tired from the flight, but he made sure he was smiling at them. He didn't want to seem like he didn't want to be here in Dallas, even if the truth was he would have happily stayed with the Capitals for his whole career if he could have. It was easy to smile when Nicky was near him, though. He was a calm presence reminding Alex exactly why he had decided to leave DC.

"Hey," Jamie said. He stepped forward, his smile still a little nervous but gaining confidence as he slipped into 'captain' mode, and held his hand out for Alex. As they shook hands, he glanced over at Nicky and said, "We're happy to have the two of you here."

It was a point in Benn's favor that he'd grouped the two of them together. He hadn't treated Nicky as an afterthought as so many people tended to do. Alex knew that was part of the strategy, that Nicky fading into the background and Alex capturing all the attention made it easier for Nicky to sneak into holes in the opposite teams defense, but he had never liked it.

"Thank you," Alex said.

"You came in together, didn't you?" Jamie asked as he stepped back. "How was the flight?"

"Yeah. Met Nicky in Stockholm and flew to Dallas together," Alex informed, though he was pretty sure Jamie had known that already. "Flight was okay. Flying never great, but wasn't bad either."

"That's good," Jamie said with a small nod.

"Are you two hungry?" Tyler said, speaking up. Alex honestly wasn't all that surprised that it was Tyler Seguin and Jordie Benn that had come with Jamie to greet them. He'd heard how close the three of them were, seen it on the ice. He also noticed how Jamie seemed to shrink back as Tyler stepped up, but how it wasn't necessarily in a bad way. There was a sense of relief in Jamie's expression as he did so, like he was far more comfortable letting Tyler take over the conversation. "Jamie and Jordie took me to this great steakhouse when I first got to Dallas. I thought we could take you two to the same place for lunch."

Alex looked over at Nicky, the question in his eyes. He knew that Nicky was tired from the flight, so even though he was hungry he wouldn't mind going to their hotel instead of going out to eat. They could just order pizza or room service.

"Lunch sounds nice," Nicky said.

"I don't know if you guys ever did it, but when I played with the Bruins we always used to try and find good steakhouses when we played in Dallas," Tyler said. Jamie nudged him a bit, making a gesture with his head that had Tyler turning to walk through the airport. Alex and Nicky followed their lead, weaving through the crowded airport. Tyler didn't slow down at all, continuing to talk, "We thought we'd found some good ones, but once I started living here I realized how wrong I was. They were good steak houses, but they weren't real Texan steakhouses."

"You are so full of shit right now," Jordie said, laughter in his voice.

"I am not," Tyler objected.

"Yes, you are," Jordie said. "You're from fucking Toronto. You don't know shit about Texan steaks."

"You're Canadian too!" Tyler pointed out. "So if I don't know anything about Texan steaks than neither do you."

"I've lived here longer," Jordie argued. "Therefore, I know more."

As the argument continued, Alex looked over at Nicky. There was a look of soft nostalgia on his face and Alex knew he was thinking of Latta and Wilson. The two of them had the same way of interacting so easily, their arguments filled with their affection for each other and their friendship evident even when Wilson had Latta in a headlock that had his face going red.

Alex reached down and grabbed Nicky's hand.

Nicky glanced over at him and gave Alex a small smile. He gave Alex's hand a tight squeeze before letting go.

Assured that Nicky was okay, Alex turned to Jamie and asked, "They always like this?"

"Yeah," Jamie said. There was a bit of exasperation in his voice, but his tone was mostly fond. "It's a little annoying, but you get used to it."

Alex thought about Latta and Wilson. He thought about how sometimes he'd been so tired after a game that their goofing around had made him want to snap at them, but how mostly he'd just enjoyed watching them. He liked them both, cared for both of them, and he liked knowing that they were happy.

He got the feeling that the way he cared about Latta and Wilson wasn't the same as the way Jamie cared about Jordie and Tyler, but the principle remained.

Alex found that soothing. He didn't know much about NHL locker rooms outside of the Capitals, especially not the Stars which had gained popularity only recently, but it was soothing to know that at least this one thing remained.

* * *

There were only five of them, but lunch was a loud affair.

At first the conversation was all about Dallas. Tyler talked about things that he'd done with Boston had first traded him, telling Alex and Nicky all the things they absolutely had to do at some point. Jordie interjected frequently, expanding on things Tyler had said or adding things to the list. Jamie was mostly quiet, but sometimes Tyler would nudge him or ask for him for back up on an argument. As time went on the conversation drifted towards the team and stories about them. They told stories about pranks the Stars had pulled on each other and about things that had happened when they went out with each other.

The Stars obviously weren't the family the Capitals had been, though part of that could be attributed to their players relatively young age, but they were friends. Close friends.

Alex liked that. The Capitals had a place in his heart that no other team could have replaced and he wasn't sure how he would have handled being absorbed into a team that was as close as the Capitals were without any space to adjust. He was sure the Stars would end up having that same family vibe that all older NHL teams did, but now he would be a part of that growth. He wouldn't just be hanging on the fringes as babies he hadn't seen grow or wives he'd never met ran around team parties.

He had time to adjust.

Knowing that made it easier for him to slouch in his seat and enjoy the steak Tyler had insisted he order.

With Nicky warm against his side, the two of them sitting on one side of the booth while Tyler and Jamie squeezed into the other and Jordie had a chair pulled up to the end, and good food in his stomach and nice conversation around him, it was easy for Alex to relax and imagine what a life in Dallas would be like.

He was fairly certain he wasn't going to hate it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 1) Hello everyone! Thank you to everyone still around and welcome to everyone that's new :)
> 
> 2) This chapter was basically the moment I was waiting for. The Stars interacting with my babies. Given in this chapter it's only the "Big Three" of Stars fic (meaning jordie, jamie, and tyler are main charcters in almost every Stars fic), but more will be coming!! In either the next chapter of the one after that. 
> 
> 3) I'm so unsure about this chapter? I finished it and then reread it and kept thinking it needed more?? but i couldn't figure out what that more was... Let me know how you feel about it?


	5. Home Is Whenever I'm With You

Slipping into the hotel room, Alex wasted no time in dropping his bag and flopping stomach down onto the nearest bed. He let out a content sigh as he sunk into the mattress, cradled by the soft blanket and his face buried in pillows that smelled of lavender.

"Sasha," Nicky said. Alex thought it was kind of amazing how his heart still soared when Nicky said his name even though he had to have heard it hundreds of times by now. Though his voice was soft, more amused and playful than actually scolding, he chided, "Shoes."

Alex turned his head out of the pillows, muttering, "Sorry, Kolya."

He didn't usually use the diminutive for Nicky's name, but something about the moment felt sweet and affectionate and domestic. The softness of the mood made him want to use it.

Without moving a whole lot, Alex used his feet to slip his shoes off. Once he'd managed to get them both off, he kicked his leg so they both went tumbling to the ground.

"Not what I meant," Nicky said with a small sigh.

"They're off the bed though," Alex said, looking over his shoulder to flash Nicky a smug smile.

Nicky rolled his eyes, but didn't say anything else as he walked further into the room.

Resting his cheek against the pillow, Alex watched as Nicky moved to the opposite side of the room and dropped his bag down in front of the window. He let his eyes roam around the room as Nicky sat on the second bed, there were certain appearances to be kept even if they had no intention of using it, to untie his own shoes.

After a minute, Alex said, "Nice hotel."

"It's not terrible," Nicky agreed.

"Not a home though," Alex said.

The room certainly had everything needed for living in it long term, but they'd had houses in DC. Very big, very nice houses. They'd had photographs on the walls and knick-knacks on the fireplaces and things in every room that made it incredibly clear who the houses belonged to. They'd had houses that had been homes to both of them.

"No... It's not," Nicky said. Setting his second shoe on the ground, Nicky looked over his shoulder and flashed a bright smile at Alex. "But I don't think that matters very much as long as you're here with me. Being with you feels more like home than any place ever has."

Alex's chest filled, feeling so much warmth and affection that it felt like his heart would burst in his chest.

"Not fair," Alex murmured. He could tell everything he was feeling was seeping into his voice, because Nicky's smile widened and his eyes softened. "You say sweet thing, then when I say sweet thing it not surprising."

"Oh?" Nicky said, raising an eyebrow. "And what sweet thing were you about to say?"

Alex looked at him for a moment, taking in how loose and relaxed Nicky was. He couldn't imagine a world where he wasn't in love with Nicky, when he didn't want Nicky by his side and in his bed all the time, so it was easy to say, "Was going to suggest finding one place to live instead of two, making a home together."

In Washington, living together had been a more complicated decision. They'd both had houses by the time they had gotten together, so selling one or moving out would have tipped every reporter in DC off. Neither of them were ready for that. Here though...Neither of them had anything here yet and no would blink twice at two people who had just moved here moving in together. Plenty of players stayed with former teammates when they were first traded, some for a short while and some for multiple seasons.

"You want to live with me?" Nicky said, sounding a little surprised.

"You have too many rules about messes and you unbearable before coffee," Alex said, "but I love you. I don't mind taking shoes off or waiting until you drink coffee to talk as long as it means I can be with you more."

"I...really don't think what I said made that any less sweet," Nicky said.

Alex smiled a bit, "That mean it a yes?"

"That doesn't mean it's a yes, but it is a yes," Nicky said. He shifted off the bed he was sitting on and got up so he could walk to the bed Alex was on. He laid down next down to Alex, their heads on pillows next to each other and Alex moving to throw an arm around Nicky's waist. "It's a yes because I love you too regardless of how truly terrible your music is or the fact that you have more dogs than any one person really needs."

Pleased, Alex leaned forward to press their lips together. Nicky's lips were soft and pliable under his. When they pulled apart, Alex licked his lips and tasted the vanilla mint chapstick Nicky used.

Alex didn't pull too far away, just resting his head on the edge of the pillow Nicky was using.

"Gotta find new house soon," Alex said. "Miss dogs already."

Nicky let out a soft sigh. "I didn't think I'd ever say this, but me too."

Alex hummed quietly, a small smile on his lips. As much as Nicky pretended not to love the dogs, Alex had seen him pout when one of them stopped cuddling with him and he'd come home from games that Nicky had been too sick or injured to play in to find that Nicky had let one of them onto the bed with him. He knew better than to believe that Nicky didn't love the dogs every bit as much as he did. 

"Think we'll be okay, Nicky," Alex said. He bumped his nose against Nicky's. "Think Dallas will be good for us."

"Me too," Nicky said. Alex felt it as Nicky shifted around, moving so he could settle one arm around Alex's chest and bury his fingers in Alex's hair. Alex let out a soft content noise, letting his eyes shut as he pushed his head up into the feeling of Nicky's fingers massaging his scalp. "I'm hoping it'll be good enough to us that you don't get any grayer."

Alex let out a small laugh. "Mean, Nicky. You like the gray."

"Well," Nicky said, tone conceding, "you have managed to make it work for you."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 1) Hello Ladies and Gents. I hope you're continuing to enjoy this story despite the utter absurdity of Nicky or Ovi being traded ever. 
> 
> 2) I swear actual time with pass in this fic soon? Also I swear we will have more Stars! On that note: who do you guys want to see in particular? I'm excited to write some interactions between Ovi and Val since Ovi has a tendency to adopt every Russian on his teams and I do so love Val. 
> 
> 3) The first actual kiss between the two of them happened in this chapter. It was sweet to write.


	6. Your Body On My Body, Baby Sticking Like Some Glue

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I just wanted to warn everyone that this chapter DOES contain descriptions of sex, but it's not graphic and I'm not raising the rating because it's not the kind of content that I think requires a higher warning.

The first couple of days in Dallas were spent bouncing between the hotel and the Airline Center. There were so many people to meet - Jim Nill and his staff, coach Ruff and his assistants, PR staff, equipment managers, a whole host of other people - and so many policies to run through. There was a certain uniformity to hockey that made most of it easy to remember, but there was enough difference between the Stars and Capitals organizations that Alex knew it was going to take him a while to get used to everything.

It was easier to orient himself when he had Nicky by his side though.

When Alex struggled to remember the name of someone he needed to speak to, Nicky would nudge him gently and murmur the name. Alex always made sure to apologize to whoever they were talking to, because it was always really obvious what they were doing and vaguely rude, but everyone always waved him off and told him they understood if he was still learning things. When Alex had a question about something, either because despite how good his English had gotten there were still things that tripped him up or because he just didn't remember something, Nicky almost always knew before Alex had verbalized it. Sometimes Nicky would answer it before Alex had the chance to ask it. Other times Alex would look over only to have Nicky shake his head, letting Alex know that he didn't understand either so Alex should just go for it. When Alex got distracted by something and lagged behind the others, Nicky was there to pull his attention back or request that they take a second so Alex could indulge his curiosity. Without Nicky there, Alex was likely to have ended up left behind and unable to figure out where he was supposed to be in the foreign space.

If he was on his own Alex would have figured it all out eventually, he had when he first joined the Capitals, but having Nicky there made things better.

Having Nicky made _him_  better.

* * *

Alex woke up to the familiar, and incredibly annoying, melodic ringing of his phone.

"Nicky, turn it off," he groaned, turning his head so he wasn't speaking directly into the pillow. He might have done it himself, probably not because that was a lot of work to do before going back to sleep but maybe, but both of their phones were set on the small table on Nicky's side of the bed.

When a moment passed without any response, he reached one arm out to try and smack Nicky.

Only instead of smacking against his partner, his hand smacked against the mattress.

Peeking one eye open, he found that Nicky's side of the bed was tousled but empty. Confused he lifted himself up onto his elbows so he could look around the room.

A hotel room wasn't a proper home, not even when it was a suite as large as theirs, but they'd been doing their best to make it at least seem like one.

There were a host of things Alex had picked up since their arrival in Dallas - a snow globe of the skyline that he'd bought at the airport, a large cowboy hat that Tyler had helped him pick out after lunch one day, a Dallas Cowboys teddy bear that he'd gotten when he and Nicky went to a game with everyone - covering the entertainment center. They'd had a small argument about the closet space, too many suits and good clothing between the two of them, when they'd first arrived but they'd found a way to make it work. With the doors to the closet ajar as it was, Alex could see most of their favorite game day suits hanging there. They'd lived off take-out for a few days, but Nicky had put his foot down after their first meeting with the Stars nutritionist. So now their tiny kitchen, visible through the open doorway, was covered in spices and other things they'd bought for cooking.

"Nicky?" Alex murmured, voice thick with sleep, as he looked around.

After another moment he heard the sound of the shower under the sound of his phone ringing.

"Ah," Alex said. He let himself fall back down on the pillows. He debated letting his phone ring, but he figured there was no point in avoiding it when he was already awake and Nicky was already up. Flailing his arm out, he grabbed his phone off the nightstand and answered it without looking at the caller ID. "Hello?"

"Hey, Ovechkin," Jamie greeted.

Alex groaned, "Is too early, Jamie."

"It's almost eleven," Jamie answered, sounding both amazed and amused.

"Am creature of the night," Alex said.

Jamie let out a bright peal of laughter that had Alex's lips pulling up in a small smile. Jamie was quiet and reserved, but not in the same way Nicky was. It was more shyness than calculation. Drawing Jamie out, making him laugh or smile despite his opinion of himself, was something that Alex took great pleasure in.

Maybe he didn't understand it at first, but after spending a few days with them he was understanding why Tyler had been drawn to Jamie.

They made sense.

He and Nicky worked because they were polar opposites. Nicky grounded Alex when he was flying too high and Alex pulled Nicky up when he had buried himself too low.

Tyler and Jamie worked because they were complimentary opposites. Tyler craved affection and validation, but he had a tendency to be too much. Jamie was quiet and shy, but he blossomed under the attention of people he loved. Tyler could put all he had into Jamie and Jamie would bloom instead of shrinking away from it. Jamie could take a back seat when Tyler was around and Tyler would be more than happy to take the reigns from him.

They made sense.

"Okay, Cullen," Jamie said, voice still amused. "I just called to invite you and Backstrom out for dinner tonight. A lot of the guys got in yesterday so we're going to have a pre-training camp dinner. It's okay if you don't want to be bombarded with them like that, but I thought I'd extend the invitation."

"Nicky's in shower," Alex said, "but I'll ask when out and get back?"

"Yeah, that's fine," Jamie said. "I would have just texted you, but I wanted to make sure you knew it wasn't a mandatory thing."

"Is okay," Alex answered. "I needed to get up soon anyway."

They exchanged quick goodbyes before hanging up. Alex tossed his phone over onto Nicky's side of the bed.

"Who was that?"

Looking over his shoulder, Alex found Nicky standing in the doorway of the bathroom. He hadn't gotten dressed in the bathroom leaving him standing in front of Alex in nothing but a towel wrapped around his waist. His wet hair stuck to his face and droplets of water rolled down his chest.

"Not important right now," Alex said, because at this precise moment he didn't really care to talk about Jamie. A grin pulled at his lips, wild and wanting, "Come back to bed?"

Nicky's lips twitched, eyes sparking with amusement. "I just took a shower, Sasha."

"I haven't," Alex returned. "Can take one together after."

"Two showers sounds like a waste of water," Nicky said.

Despite his words Nicky stepped towards the bed, and Alex, instead of stepping towards the dresser.

* * *

Alex had never really considered the difference between fucking and making love until he got with Nicky. He'd been young when he and Nicky had first started dating. He'd had sex with girls and boys before, but he'd been so focused on hockey that he'd never had the time to put enough effort into a relationship for it to develop that much. Everything had been a fling.

With Nicky, though, Alex had become all too familiar with the difference between the two.

It was fucking when he grabbed at Nicky's hips to pull him close to the bed, when he kissed Nicky, hard enough to bruise and bit at his lips, and when he nipped at Nicky's skin on his way down to his chest, when he laid down on his stomach so he could get Nicky's cock in his mouth, when Nicky gripped at Alex's hair and pushed his hips up to make Alex take more. It was fucking when Nicky tightened his grip and yanked Alex backwards, when he looked down at Alex with stormy blue eyes and cocked his head in a silent direction, when Alex hurried to roll to his knees and looked back at Nicky with his face pressed against the mattress and lust written all over his face. It was fucking when Nicky stretched him open until Alex was fucking himself on his fingers, when Nicky pressed just the tip of his dick into Alex and refused to give Alex the rest until his begging lost the cockiness, when Alex finally got it right and Nicky fucked him into the mattress so hard that Nicky's name was the only thing Alex remembered how to say.

It was making love when they were resting after they'd both come and Alex turned his head to nuzzle at the skin right under Nicky's ear, when they turned into slow satisfied kisses until Nicky pulled away to roll on top of Alex, when Alex set his hands on Nicky's chest because it was so hard not to touch when Nicky was putting himself on display for him. It was making love when Nicky rolled his hips so their cocks rubbed together and Alex moved his hand down to Nicky's sides so he could rub his thumb against the skin there, when Alex let his head lull back as Nicky's name feel from his lips like a soft prayer, when Nicky said Alex's in a voice that made it sound like Alex held world in his hands. It was making love when Nicky lifted off Alex so he could open himself up for Alex, when Alex ran his hands up and down Nicky's spine because as much as he'd love to get do it himself there was something incredibly irresistible about watching Nicky stretch himself open. It was making love when Nicky lowered himself onto Alex's cock and when they moved their bodies together in a slow synchronized rhythm that came only from years of learning the best ways to make each other feel good.

They spent their morning in bed like that - fucking and cuddling and making love - until Alex's stomach growled so loud that Nicky insisted they eat. Alex had tried to convince him they could live on a diet of semen, but that just made Nicky laugh at him as he rolled out of his bed.

Alex spent a moment complaining before Nicky called over his shoulder that he was going to take a second shower and Alex could either join him for one last round or he could keep complaining. Alex had scrambled out of bed in time to slip into the bathroom before Nicky closed the door.

After they showered and got dressed, Nicky pushed Alex out into the kitchen for breakfast. He lifted himself up onto the counter and spent the rest of his morning chatting with Nicky as he made them lemon poppy seed pancakes.

It was the kind of nice, happy day that they'd had hundreds of in DC.

Alex was looking forward to having hundreds more in Dallas.

* * *

"Is weird," Alex complained as he held the restaurant door open for Nicky. "Already September and still so hot."

"DC wasn't exactly cold this time of year either," Nicky pointed out as he stepped inside. He reached forward to grab the second down, pulling it open as Alex stepped into the building and through the first one.

"Yes," Alex agreed as he passed the doorway. "But wasn't _this_ hot."

"Well no," Nicky said, "but it also wasn't Texas."

"Okay, you have point but I'm not wrong."

Nicky just shook his head as he walked to the hostess stand. Still laughing a bit, he greeted the woman standing there, "Hello. We're supposed to be joining some friends. The table's under-"

"Benn," the woman finished, smiling at Nicky.

"Yes," Nicky said with a small nod. "Are you a fan?"

"Everyone here is," she answered. "We weren't always, but when you see the same group of people as often as we see the Stars you get curious about their profession."

"They come here often?" Alex asked. He'd been looking around the restaurant, taking in what he'd learned was fairly common decor for a Texas steakhouse but which still seemed strange to him.

"Yup," she said with a small nod. She reached into the podium, grabbing two menus from it. "Most places around here have Cowboys merchandise, but we've covered the back wall in stuff for the Stars and we make sure that the TVs by the bar are always playing their - your - games." Stepping back, she gestured her arm down pathway left to her. "Follow me, please."

Nicky fell into step behind her and Alex followed her.

They wound through the restaurant until they were nearing the back.

From where they were Alex could see the wall she'd been talking about. The center piece of the wall was a bright neon green Dallas Stars logo. Under the sign was a picture of the 1999 Stanley Cup winning team. There were jerseys lining both sides of the picture alternating between the classic black and the new victory green. Most of them had sweeping personal signatures. Between the jerseys were a collection of other pictures and the occasional puck with a silver signature.

In front of the wall was a group of tables pushed together.

Jamie was sitting at the table in the center of the group with Jordie and Tyler on either side of him. As Alex looked down the table he recognized a few of the others as well - Jason Demers was leaning into Jordie as he showed him a picture on his phone, Cody Eakin was holding a short whiskey glass in his hand and making wide sweeping gestures with his hands as he spoke, Antoine Roussel had his arm wrapped around Vernon Fiddler's shoulders as he said something to him that had his lips curling up mischievously. There were other people scattered around the table that Alex recognized, people that had been playing with the Stars for years, and a few that he didn't.

"Nicky," Alex murmured. He stepped a little closer so he could rest his hand on Nicky's lower back. "You ready to meet team?"

"As I'll ever be," Nicky answered. He looked over his shoulder, catching Alex's eye. "You?"

Alex hummed. He put just a little bit of pressure against Nicky's back as he parroted, "As I'll ever be."

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 1) Hello everyone! Thank you for continuing to read this and I hope your still enjoying it!
> 
> 2) I wonder if I'm putting too much emphasis on these two as a unit? I feel like there's a lot in this fic about Nicky making things easier even though Alex would definitely be able to do by himself?
> 
> 3) I kept wanting to put Sharpy in this and than remembering I replaced Sharpy with Alex&Nicky. But at least I got to keep Daley (and Garbutt). Part of me also wants to ignore the Flames trade so I can keep Jokipakka (and Pollock). Opinions?
> 
> 4) I.....don't know if I like the third scene? Part of me thinks writing about them fucking was out of place in this fic? But part of me also thinks it was perfectly on point for this chapter. 
> 
> 5) Also even though in here the fucking is fast and the making love is slow, I think it's perfectly possible to do that the other way around? I think it just depends on the people.


	7. It'll Be Just Like Starting Over

"Ovechkin! Backstrom!" Tyler greeted when he caught sight of Alex and Nicky. He was leaned back in his chair, trying to avoid the hand Jordie was trying to shove into his face. Having heard the table erupt into laughter just moments before, Alex assumed Tyler had said something to deserve the retaliation. "Hey!"

"Hey," Jamie said, turning his head to look at them. His grin was wider and more wild than Alex had seen him look since coming to Dallas. It was clear he was feeding off the energy of his team, reveling in the presence of his team and the confidence they instilled in him. Alex had met a lot of different Captains in his life, but he'd never met someone who thrived off their team as much or as obviously as Jamie did. It suited him in a way that it wouldn't have suited anyone else. It strengthened him instead of undermining his authority. "Glad you guys could make it."

"Thank you for inviting us," Nicky returned.

"No need to thank us," Jamie said. He shook his head a bit. "You guys are part of the team."

Alex hummed, thinking about how that wasn't true.

The two of them hadn't been there for the things that made this team a team. They hadn't been there for the loses that had everyone quiet on the bus, they hadn't been there for the injuries that had fingernails digging into palms as frustration grew hot and heavy, they hadn't been there for the crushing realization that nothing they did would get them into the post season. They hadn't been there for the nights out after a win when everyone's brains were fuzzy from alcohol and adrenaline, they hadn't been for the screaming proclamations about pregnant wives and girlfriend's turned into fiancees, they hadn't been there for the moment they realized that even if they hadn't gotten the Stanley Cup they had gotten Jamie the Art Ross.

They weren't apart of this team yet, but they were going to be.

"Come on. Sit down," Jordie urged. Pulling his hand out of Tyler's space, he gestured to the two empty seats across from him and Jamie. "We figured you'd want to sit with someone you actually knew instead of the idiot brigade."

"Hey now," Jason Demers cut in. He was sitting next to Jordie, leaned in close, and now he wrapped an arm around Jordie's shoulders and tugged him even closer. "Don't go giving them bad impressions of us."

"Yeah, Jor," Cody Eakin said. He was sitting on the same side of the table as Alex and Nicky would be, a few seats to the right of them. "You've gotta let them learn that Daddy's an idiot. You can't just tell them right off the bat."

Jason dipped two fingers into the short whisky glass in front of him before flicking his finger at Eakin.

Eakin just laughed as the alcohol hit him.

"Do you want a drink?" Tyler asked as Alex sat down. The way they were seated put Nicky on Alex's left. It was a stupid thing, but Alex liked being on Nicky's right. Nicky was his center whether they were on the ice or not. "They've got a pretty good selection here. Rous always comes back from vacation a hundred times more french than when he left so he's drinking wine so he'd probably be able to tell you whats good here, Jamie is a shitty Canadian and prefers American craft beers so he could give you a recommendation for one of those, and there's like six or seven different types of whisky around this table."

Alex hummed in thought, cutting a glance over at Nicky.

"I'm not pouring you into a cab," Nicky warned.

"Nicky, please, am not child anymore," Alex said. He looked over at Nicky properly, grinning widely, "I can pour myself into a cab."

His words sent a round of laughter around the table.

Nicky didn't laugh, but there was an amused tip to his lips as he rolled his eyes.

"Oh god, let's not do that," Jamie said. "The last time we were out drinking with a Russian, Tyler spent the entire next morning puking and Val didn't even have a hangover. I don't even want to know what he'd look like tomorrow if he tried keeping up with you."

"Weak," Nichushkin said. His accent was thick and familiar. They were from such different places that his accent wasn't a perfect match with Alex's, but Russia was Russia. He was sitting in the seat on Tyler's otherside and when he caught Alex's eye, he greeted. "Здравствуйте."

Alex vaguely remembered the kid from the Olympics. He'd spent a good portion of the early games enjoying having time with Zhenya and Sasha Semin, swept up in the pride of playing in an Olympic games in his country. When it became obvious they weren't going to medal, Alex hadn't even wanted to talk to Nicky much less some kid he wasn't familiar with.

"Здравствуйте," Alex returned. He smiled at him and pointed at the glass in Val's hand, switching back to English to ask, "What are you drinking?"

"Water," Val said. He scrunched his nose up as he added, "Not legal in this country."

"Few more months buddy," Tyler said, reaching over to pat him on the shoulder. "Then we'll take you somewhere other than Jamie's apartment and trashy bars that won't check your ID."

"You drink Beluga?" Alex asked.

Val nodded. Though he looked a little confused, he added, "Prefer Kauffman though."

"I order that then," Alex said. With a wink, he promised, "You sneak drinks when no one looking."

* * *

They spent the rest of the night with the Stars.

They spent a long while talking and joking around as they drank. The Stars were a relatively young team though, a fair amount of the people at the table were kids who had spent the last few seasons with the Stars and bounced around enough to be familiar with the team, so while there were a few phones passed around with pictures of children most of the conversation was silly. They spoke loudly about their summers spent being careless young men, talking about girls they'd met at parties and going white water rafting with friends and eating pizza every night because they tried learning to cook before the season but everything not cooked on a grill turned to charcoal.

When they finally ordered food, they ordered what seemed like every appetizer on the menu on top of their individual meals. Antoine Roussel looked ready to start a fight with Jason Demers over the last beer pretzel until Tyler leaned in between them to take a giant bite out of the middle. Then they both turned their aggression on him instead. Mattias Janmark, one of the boys from the Stars, scarfed down mozzarella sticks down so quickly that Alex felt compelled to remind him that Sidney Crosby choking on mozzarella sticks didn't mean they all had too. An argument broke out between Jordie, Vernon Fiddler, and Jason Spezza about what the proper amount of sauce on barbecue wings was.

Things calmed down once their food came, but only marginally. They reminisced about things they'd done the previous year as they sliced into steaks. They talked about the Super Bowl bet that had Tyler shaving Jordie's beard the year before, chirping Tyler for his inability to shave someone properly and Jordie for how he looked without the facial hair. Alex Goligoski complained about how they really needed to stop putting shaving cream in his shoes because his wife was getting really fed up with him throwing foam covered socks in their laundry. John Klingberg talked about his locker getting filled with Swedish fish when he'd joined the Stars last year, complaining about how they could've at least filled it with a candy that tasted good.

By the time all of them finished eating and talking, it was late. Alex was a little fuzzy from all the alcohol he'd drank, he'd been okay when he was just drinking vodka but than the others convinced him to try some of their drinks and mixing had clearly been a mistake, when he finally stood up. Nicky kept his promise not to pour Alex into a cab. He kept Alex from stumbling too much as they left the restaurant, but once they were outside he stood a few paces back and laughed as he made his way to the cab Nicky had called.

When Alex flopped into the backseat of the cab, Nicky having a quick conversation with Jamie who had come with just in case Alex ended up on the ground and Nicky needed help getting him up, he did it feeling warm and happy and excited.

He kept telling Nicky they would do good things in Dallas, but he'd most of what he'd said had been about them.

Now he was excited for what they would do on the ice here, for what they could do with this team. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 1) Hello everyone! I hope you enjoyed this chapter!
> 
> 2) So I did some editing on the earlier chapters for this fic and I highly suggest everyone go read them again! Not just because of the editing but because I also inserted some awesome images that [CrazyJ](http://archiveofourown.org/users/CrazyJ) helped with and I think they look amazing! This includes some texts from earlier chapters being changed to images and some awesome looking news headlines. There are also chapter titles now. 
> 
> 3) I have a definite tendency to insert random sappy bits about the relationship? Like Alex thinking about how Nicky is his center regardless of them being on the ice. Is that too much??
> 
> 4) [An article](http://www.cbssports.com/nhl/news/sidney-crosbys-biggest-threat-after-breaking-jaw-mozzarella-sticks/) about Sidney Crosby choking on mozzarella sticks because that's hilarious. 
> 
> 5) [The video](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i3gI30hWUDQ) of Tyler Seguin shaving Jordie's beard.


	8. We’ve Only Just Begun

"Nicky, you dressed yet?" Alex called as he wandered from the living room in their hotel suite to the bedroom. "I want breakfast."

The two of them were getting ready to head out for their first day at the Stars training camp.

Alex had gotten ready first, Nicky shoving him out of the bed and pushing him to the shower because he knew Alex would just fall back asleep,and he'd gone out to the den area while Nicky was in the shower. He'd spent a while messing around on his phone, playing a few games and sending a few silly pictures to Greenie.

They still had a while before they had to leave, but with his stomach rumbling he'd gotten up to seek out Nicky.

"Almost," Nicky said.

Alex couldn't find him in the bedroom, so he followed the sound of his voice into the bathroom.

He found Nicky standing in front of the sink there. He had one of the dark, coffee brown towels wrapped around his waist. It accented the pale glow of his skin. His hair dryer was in his hand, but his hair had that soft, fluffy quality that it got when it was dry so Alex figured he'd just finished using it.

"Almost, he say," Alex mocked. He leaned against the door jam, crossing his arms over his chest as he let his eyes roam down the exposed skin. Nicky glanced over at him, quirking an eyebrow. "You not even wearing underwear."

"It doesn't take me twenty minutes to find clothes," Nicky shot back.

Alex shrugged, unperturbed by the accusation. "Not my fault I'm not as naturally pretty as you."

Nicky let out a loud laugh. "Sasha, who are you trying to fool here? You definitely think you're the pretty one in this relationship."

Deliberately misunderstanding, Alex clicked his tongue. "Confidence too low, Nicky."

"My confidence isn't too low," Nicky corrected. He turned his head, just enough for Alex to clearly see the upturn of his lips and the amused twinkle in his eye. "Your confidence is just too high."

"No such thing," Alex dismissed. Nicky let out another low chuckle as he turned back to the mirror. As he set the hair dryer down, Alex said, "Seriously, you done soon? I'm hungry."

"I've just got to brush my teeth then I'll go find some clothes," Nicky answered. He reached forward, pulling the mirror open and reaching inside for the toothpaste. "You know, if you started breakfast for me then we could eat sooner."

"No way," Alex objected. "Your turn, not mine."

"I'm not asking you to cook completely." Alex just shook his head. Pointing his toothbrush at Alex, Nicky added, "If you're not going to help, then stop complaining."

"So mean," Alex complained. Nicky didn't bother dignifying him with a response. "Since have to wait, can we have pancakes? With strawberry sauce and whipped cream."

Nicky glanced over him as he plucked his toothbrush from the cup on the sink. It was a white mug that had a spider and a plate with cookie crumbs on it. It said "I'm sorry I 8 them." Alex had picked it up at a dollar store when he'd been out with Tyler one day. Nicky had given him the worst kind of face when he saw it so Alex made sure to put it somewhere he would have to look at it everyday.

Raising an incredibly judgmental eyebrow, Nicky said, "You really want pancakes before we go to training camp?"

"Best time," Alex said. When Nicky's eyebrow just raised, he added, "They not watching us yet, Kolya. Still free men."

Nicky's laughter followed him as he left.

* * *

Their first day of training camp didn't include any time on the ice.

Alex wasn't surprised, but he wasn't ecstatic about it. It helped, however, that he'd been on the ice a few times since he'd gotten to Dallas.

When he and Nicky had first gotten to Dallas, working with trainers and equipment managers and nutritionists to get things get for the season, they would arrive early to skate around the rink. They didn't usually bring their gear with them on those days, so they ended up just skating around and enjoying the ice under their feet. Nicky had skated lazy loops, feet completely steady and sure under him, and speaking softly with Alex as the soft chill turned his pale cheeks red. They'd skate around like that for a while until Alex's blood was pumping. Then Alex would goad Nicky into races and competitions until they were both pleasantly winded and laughing.

Hockey was their job, but for most of them it was also their favorite hobby. It wasn't a hassle to go play together when they were off. So once the rest of the team started arriving and the two of them began making friends, they started going to the rink to mess around. They'd have small scrimmages where Alex would tease Val in Russian until Val had turned such a bright cherry red that everyone else laughed at him even though they didn't know what Alec was saying to him. Alex and Roussel would get into friendly tussles, wrestling each other to the ground instead of throwing punches and exchanging friendly chirps about each others countries. He get drawn into ridiculous competitions by Jordie and Demers. They had contests were they skated around with pucks on their head the way Alex had seen American debutantes do with books in movies or skated directly at each other to joust with their sticks.

Instead of getting on the ice, they spent their first day of training camp was spent crowded together in a tiny room to watch a series of PowerPoint. Used to media training, most of the older guys focused on doing other things while the people presenting went through their speeches. Tyler had pulled out his phone to work on a level of Candy Crush and Jordie, Alex, and Demers had all leaned in to give him pointers even as he insisted he didn't need help. Jamie had tried to convince them to pay attention, telling them they were being rude, but even the girl giving the presentation had waved him off. She'd made it clear that she expected the younger players to listen to her though. Nicky had been so charmed by the fear that she struck into them while smiling that Alex knew immediately that Nicky would end up forming a friendship with her. Nicky appreciated anyone who managed to be as silently crazy as he was instead of spilling it all over like Alex.

Alex would always prefer to be on the ice, but he didn't mind being put in this room with these guys either.

* * *

Alex was standing outside the presentation room with Jordie and Demers. The three of them were chatting about a suit Jason had bought over the break. As odd as Alex could get sometimes, he'd always appreciated a nicely cut black suit over anything with too much color. Salmon was a good color on Subban, but Alex wouldn't have pulled it off as well. Jason, however, didn't feel the same way because he'd bought a deep purple suit over the break and was trying to convince them that it was a quality purchase.

"Sasha."

Looking away from his conversation partners, Alex turned to see Nicky coming out of the room. Smile spreading instinctively, Alex said, "Nicky. Ready to go?"

"Actually," Nicky said, "I was thinking of going out for lunch with Fiddler and Spezza."

Alex blinked for a minute, struck by the words.

He and Nicky weren't exactly attached at the hips. Both of them had gone out without the other since getting to Dallas, but this was the first time they had split up without talking about it before hand. Without it being planned.

It shouldn't have been such a big deal, but Alex couldn't help thinking that it said something about how they were adjusting to their new team. That it said something about how they were gradually starting to do the same things here as they'd done in DC.

"Okay then," Alex said. "I meet you at hotel later?"

"Yeah," Nicky agreed. Reaching forward, he slipped his hands into Alex's pocket and took the keys to the car from his pocket. His touch, fingers brushing against Alex's thigh through the thin fabric of Alex's jeans, was comfortable and unconcerned with the people around them. "I'm going to take these too."

Before Alex could say anything else, a heavy arm fell over his shoulders. Jordie leaned over him, asking, "You want to come out for lunch with me and Daddy then, Alex? We'll drop you off at your hotel after."

"Okay," Alex agreed with a small nod. "Long as I don't see purple suit."

Flashing one last smile at Nicky, Alex let Jordie steer him away from even as Demers started complaining about his words.

As he left, there was a sharp feeling in Alex's gut.

It was that feeling that he'd been feeling ever since they'd started interacting with their teammates, started seeing what kind of chemistry they had with these guys off the ice and thinking about how that would translate on it.

It was the feeling that Dallas was going to be good for him and Nicky.

The feeling that his and Nicky's future together in Dallas was going to be fantastic.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 1) Okay! Hi everyone! I hope you enjoyed this chapter. I am so sorry it took me so long to get to. My schedule is way different this quarter then last quarter, so I have very little free time some days and an absurd amount on other days. And those days when I have a lot of free time end up with me kind of dicking around because I just don't have the focus to have that much time free. Regardless!! I am trying to get back to work properly on my fics. 
> 
> 2) Alex would 1000% play dad to Val bc russian unite. Nicky probably also adopts Klinger and Janny bc we know how he feels about other swedes. Alex would ALSO get along swimmingly with Jordie, Daddy, and Rous. And I think Nicky would definitely get along with my fav dads Spezza and Fidds.


End file.
